• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Best "Paid For" Apps

I have many of the EXTRAORDINARY apps already suggested (Beautiful Widgets, Locale, Docs2Go, etc). So here are a few unmentioned.

PhoneMyPC - Holy Crap! This thing can turn your phone into a trackpad for your computer!
Yeah so what? There's more. It can remotely take a snapshot of your computer's current display screen (in case you want to check up on your kids activities without fully diving into privacy violation?).
Cool, but wait, there's more! You can watch the actions of the display LIVE on your phone (in case you want to fully violate privacy? I dunno...).
Wait, there's still more. You can actually interact with your computer live, remotely (over 3G from wherever), in the exact way that you are thinking. Just click the 'Interact Live' button, and you can wake your computer, login, see your desktop on our phone, open whatever files you like, open your browser, do ANYTHING from ANYWHERE as long as you have a data connection! It is full remote access to your computer (a GREAT thing to have if you forgot to print or send a copy of that file on your home PC). I have even tried it to stream Netflix to my phone! (FYI, it only runs at 2fps and does not have sound... yet).
/rant

Mobile Fax - Use your camera as a scanner and your data connection as a modem and send up to 9 pages a day. Personally, I do not have a fax at home, but I occasionally find the need for one. Problem solved! Are you a construction worker (or other sub-contractor)? Do you need to fax an invoice to the head-boss before the end of the day? Pull out your phone and get it done in seconds!

Scan2PDF - Uses the camera as a scanner and converts the image into a PDF. This is great for students like me. Rather than xeroxing pages out of a book, I just snap a few PDFs as I flip the pages and I'm on my way!

OneClick widget (may no longer be available on the market) - A nice assortment of widgets to control phone functions. But what sets this one apart is the ability to customize the color scheme of the icons. ALSO, the airplane mode widget gives the option to leave the Wifi radio on!

Mini Golf Wacky Worlds - It makes me sad that the game only has 36 holes!

BetterCut - Helps to customize those icons for your desktop. Do you use 'Carrr Matey' or some other app with an absurd icon eyesore? Here's your fix!

Pure Music Widget - Various size widgets for controlling your android music player from the desktop

I hope that helps. ENJOY!
 
Upvote 0
I have many of the EXTRAORDINARY apps already suggested (Beautiful Widgets, Locale, Docs2Go, etc). So here are a few unmentioned.

Definitely some interesting apps that I wouldn't think about. Just some questions I have on some of them. How is the fax quality of the mobile fax? and how long does it take to fax a page? I'm thinking fax is over 3G and not 2G? How is the quality of the scan of scan2pdf? Both seem like really good fines :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: CriticalCritic
Upvote 0
Apps


1. Tasker: It's Locale on steroids, and it's cheaper. Get it before they jack up the price.

2. Pure Calendar, Messenger, Music: All excellent apps, and the developer is amazing to deal with. Nice guy, and incredibly responsive.

3. FolderOrganizer: Amazing application for those like me who are anal about organizing their applications and icons

4. LauncherPro Plus: The widgets Fede is releasing with this are absolutely fantastic. They are still basic in functionality, but they're so slick and fast I don't care.

5. SystemPanel: Basically, all of the system data you could ever need in one app. It's also the task killer for people who hate task killers.

6. SwitchPro Widget: Best toggle widget. Worth the money.

7. Nexus Revamped Pro: My personal favorite, most customizable live wallpaper.

8. Vignette: Best camera app for photo effects.

9. Beautiful Widgets: Almost limitless customization potential in your clock/weather widget, plus additional toggle widgets.

10. Audio Manager Pro: Great app for controlling your audio levels. Although, lately with Tasker, I haven't used it at all. Great app either way.

11. PhoneMyPC: Amazing app for controlling remote PCs. The last update made HUGE improvements to performance, too.

12: Slingplayer Mobile: Yeah. It's awesome.

13: Note Everything Pro: Best quick notes app.

14: Touchdown: Amazing exchange sync app. Excellent interface, great widgets, lots of functionality. Worth the money.


Requires Root


1. CacheMate: Best cache management app, if you have root.

2. ROM Manager Premium: Allows for switching ROMs without access to a PC. Great application. Also has some other nifty functions, like permissions fixes.

3. SetCPU: Overclock your phone without burning out your CPU. Awesome.

4. Root Explorer: File manager for root users. You can do just about anything with it, even edit system files.


Games


1: Crusade of Destiny: Great little 3d RPG. Reminiscent of WoW on a smaller scale.

2: Baseball Superstars 2010: Very entertaining baseball game. Some of the translations to English are a little off, which actually makes it more fun. Also has some elements of Baseball Simulator 1000, if you remember that game.

3. Armored Strike Online: Really fun Scorched Earth/Worms type game. Has been improving with updates.

4. Gameboid, Nesoid, Snesoid, PSX4Droid: I can play Final Fantasy 7 on my phone. That is all.

5. Zenonia: Excellent classic style JRPG

6. Raging Thunder 2: Really good racing game.
 
Upvote 0
Definitely some interesting apps that I wouldn't think about. Just some questions I have on some of them. How is the fax quality of the mobile fax? and how long does it take to fax a page? I'm thinking fax is over 3G and not 2G? How is the quality of the scan of scan2pdf? Both seem like really good fines :)

There is a free/light version of mobile fax that allows you to send one fax per day. Give it a shot. It seems to be decent quality but you may need to play with the settings (make sure 'lighten edges' is enabled). Faxing is fast and easy, but it takes a steady hand and you may need to retake the shot a couple times to get used to it. I dunno if it would work over 2G, I've never tried it.

Scan2pdf quality is decent. Though the dev, rather than update the existing software, has released a newer separate version, so I bet it's even better.
 
Upvote 0
I'll second (or third?) Pure Grid Calendar widget. Dev is a great guy, drops by these forums from time to time, very responsive on feature requests

I think MinimalText deserve a donation - truly amazing app, it should cost money but it's free -- worth a donation for sure.

I would not reccomend Beautiful Widgets anymore, they (used to?) leak private info into the logs. And cause some serious memory issues and had annoying popups about downloading more skins eventhough the one I had was fine.

Launcher Pro is nice


***
Listbales is teh bestest of course ***

***
And BlueMuze is awesome for Bluetoothing music between phones ***

***
And PocketPermissions is great for checking permissions and learning about sercurity ***

*** Disclaimer: These are my apps, just added to list as a joke
:)
 
Upvote 0
First of all, I do NOT try or install and definitely would NOT pay for any app that receives less than 4.0 rating on Google Play.

Best apps I've paid for:

CamScanner: The best document scanner app for doing my job. Handy Scanner is also very competent, but I only need one app for scanning purpose.

DW Contacts & Phone Dialer: The most customizable contacts and dialer, although its customization menus and options are unnecessarily complicated and have many redundancies.

Delayed Lock: The default phone lock activated too soon and too often; it was driving me mad until I uninstalled this app to override the default phone lock settings.

Dr.Web Anti-Virus: The most non-intrusive anti-virus app with the smallest footprint among anti-virus apps. Just do NOT use or turn on its broken and unnecessary anti-theft feature.

Fast Reboot Pro: It automatically clears RAM and caches every time I unlock my phone, keeps my phone snappy.

Folder Organizer: The single most useful app I have on my phone, keeps my apps and home screens organized.

Mobi Calculator Pro: The calculator with the best history function, allows me to edit and add notations to history entries, which really helps me do my job.

Quick Boot Plus: The reboot app I like the most, simple and clean.

Relax Melodies Premium: I have trouble sleeping, this has really helped me fall asleep fast. I am using it every night.

SetCPU: A nice battery saver. Previously I also used it to prevent my phone from overheating. However, I replaced replacing the manufacturer batteries with a third-party one, which resolved the overheating problem.

SystemPanel App/Task Manager: The interface is very beautiful, user-friendly and informative. I use favorite it in another app/task manager, Smart Task Switcher Pro, that pops up whenever I tap on the Home key. (Smart Task Switcher is not too great on its own; it has too many problems, and the developer has not fixed or updated it since last year.)

Titanium Backup Pro: I use it to uninstall bloatware, moving apps in and out of /system. This is my primary backup app because ClockworkMod does not work with Link2SD installed.


Best games I've paid for:

Battleheart, (the best action RPG for Android phones; it is a pity the developer announced in March that they had given up the Android market and ceased all productions for Android. I shall miss Mika Mobile,) Battle for Wesnoth, (the PC and iOS versions are far superior and receive new updates way more frequently, but this is still the best strategy game on Android,) Dungeon Village and Game Dev Story, (I started playing KairoSoft games and loved both. I want to get all of them,) Majesty: Fantasy Kingdom and Majesty: Northern Expansion, and Rebuild.


Wastes of money (for me anyway):

Juice Defender Ultimate: It worked, but it also severely slowed down my phone. The developer also has not updated the app since last year.

OfficeSuite Pro+
: This is absolutely the WORST office app... let me scratch that, this is the WORST app that rips off people. PERIOD. Before you pay $15 for the "Pro" version, it does not reveal that people will have to pay $5 to $10 for each additional component (e.g., Windows-compatible fonts, spell-checker, dictionaries, etc.) You do not have to buy the extras, but the app keeps bothering you with sale pitches. Thank goodness I got it free from Amazon AppStore and did not get ripped off by it.

ROM Manager Premium
: ClockworkMod does not recognize or format /sdcard/_ExternalSD correctly on my phone. It also does not work with Link2SD and therefore cannot backup anything correctly. For me personally, Link2SD is the one single must-have and my number-one favorite app. Link2SD conflicts with ClockworkMod, so it makes ROM Manager unusable on my phone. I can have only one of either Link2SD or ClockworkMod, and I choose Link2SD, so ROM Manager would have to go.

ROM Toolbox Pro: Has a classy stylish interface. It does a lot of things and duplicates most of the functions of Titanium Backup and ROM Manager, but it does not do anything particularly well.

Widget Lockscreen: I used it for a day before found out Go Locker is free, better and has more options. Beautiful Widgets, which I am still using, may also become a waste because the GO Launcher EX version (which is free) is updating and improving fast. All the free GO Launcher EX components and giveaways are quickly outclassing all their competitions and paid counterparts.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Roze
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones